Valparaiso High School - Valenian Yearbook (Valparaiso, IN)

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HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL 1904. CLASS WILL. Know all Men by these Presents, that we, the Class of Naughty Four, of the Valparaiso High School, being in good health of body and sound and disposing state of mind and memory (notwithstanding our violent mental efforts of these four years) and being desirous of settling our worldly affairs while we have strength and capacity, do make and publish this our last will and testament, hereby revoking and making void all former wills by us at any time heretofore made. First. We direct our executors, hereinafter named, to pay all our just debts and funeral expenses from our person- al property not hereinafter disposed of. Second. We give to the Juniors our back seats, our Physics note books, our stable of ponies and all we die pos- sessed of. Third. We give to our friend and landlord, George S. Haste, all the superfluous hot air we may have on hand to be distributed in the fall as Miss Benny may direct. Fourth. We give to the Sophomores all the holes in the matting to be used at their discretion. Fifth. We give to the Freshmen any obnoxious odors which may arise ab inhumatis rodentibus. Sixth. We give to our ilat-hatted friend, Lurton K. Halderman, the hole in the southwest corner of the H. S. room to be used for peanut shells and apple cores for which he has no other use. Lastly we appoint Hon. Ray Adams and Supt. A. A. Hughart our executors. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hand and seal, in presence of the persons whose names are subscribed. (Signed) NAUGHTY FOUR (L. S.) Witnesses: Wm. Schumacher, Laura Jones. Subscribed to and sworn before me this 23rd day of May, 1904. Eugene Skinkle, J. P. (My commission expires May 23, 2000, Q. E. D.) 17 20th Century Leap Year Club. This club is known as the Valparaiso Leap Year Club and the membership is limited to the teachers in the public schools of Valparaiso. No questions are asked as to age, politics or religion. The only oath required is to support the constitution, promote the espousal of its members at any cost, and add to the ex-membership. The officers shall consist of president, vice-president, cor- responding secretary, treasurer, grand lecturer, sergeant-at- arms, right guard, left guard, traveling solicitor, and such committees as the president may appoint. The following is a list of the officers: Estella Diefenbaugh — President. Blanche Spencer — Vice President. Nellie Power — Corresponding Secretary. Pearl Miller — Treasurer. Rebecca Pierce— Grand Lecturer. Fannie McIntyre — Sergeant-at-arms. A. A. Hughart — Worthy Patron. Eugene Skinkle — Right Guard. E. S. Miller — Left Guard, F. A. Reece— Traveling Solicitor. ( William Freeman, Advisory Board ■! L. M. Pierce, ( Dr. J. R. Pagin. COMMITTEES. Would Leap: Rebecca Schnewind, Myrtle Gettys, Mar- garet Beer, Nona MacQuilkin, Leona Appleby, Louise Wins- low, Mabel Benny, Ida Jones. Anti-leap: Elizabeth Patton, Bess Stinchfield, Julia Carver, Laura Pagin, Minnie McIntyre, Olie Welty and Mary Deegan. Soon-to-leap: Lillian Perry, Nellie Parks, Ruth Qua- termas, Sadie Sweney, Letta Landis and Lillian Smutzer. Ex-members: Mrs. Beth Benny Ellis, Mrs. Grace Louder- back Hughart, Mrs. Estella Lewis Ray, Mrs. Rose Drago Pierce, Mrs. Kate Stoddard Jones, Mrs. Margaret McGregor Lytle, Mrs. Rebecca Bartholomew Lestenberger, Mrs. Kate Gregory Billings.

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16 HIGH THE HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL EDITED BY THE CLASS OF 1904 EDITOR, - - RUDOLPH A. BARTHOLOMEW Associate Editors: Auretta II. Agnew, Gordon B. Norris BUSINESS MANAGER, - - ARTHUR E. LOUDERBACK CLASS PRESIDENT, - - - W. ARTHUR HALL T1IE NEW BUILDING. Much detail in describing the plans of the new building would require several pages of our Annual and in the end might not be interesting to the readers. We will therefore endeavor to make this account as brief as possible and leave out such items as the measurement of the windows and the height of the doors. In the basement is to be the long desired gymnasium, which will measure 52 by 90 feet, and is to be divided, one side for the boys and the other for the girls. The ceiling will be high enough for basket-ball, while the width of the room will insure ample space for a bowling alley. It will be com- pletely equipped with all kinds of training apparatus. The athletic enthusiasm of the students will probably make up for any deficiency in equipment, however. If the pupils or the future will but make athletics a success ( along with studies ) it will add such a spirit to the school as will soon crowd the assembly room with students and raise the V. H. S. to a new standing among our neighboring high schools. On the same floor there will be two science rooms, a manual training room, a fresh-air room and the heating apparatus. The first floor will be divided into ten rooms for the grades. The departmental work of the seventh and eighth grades will be carried on here. All will be fitted up in the most modern and convenient style. The second floor is to be occupied by the high school students exclusively. The assembly room will accommodate two hundred fifty. One feature of the plans for this room we especially admire, and that is this: the platform will be 18 by 30 and raised enough to be admirably suited to entertain- ments. The coming juniors can no longer furnish an excuse for dismissing their seniors unbanquetted. In addition to the assembly room are seven recitation rooms, the library and the superintendent’s private office. ANNUAL 1904. In the attic our superintendent is contemplating a labora- tory where the untutored chemistry student may compound chemicals at the risk of the skylight only. The janitor is al- so thinking of keeping pigeons up among these rafters. A new system of heating is to be installed which does away with most of the radiators, although some are required for extremely cold weather. The cold air enters the base- ment, passes over radiators where it is heated and thence through stacks to the different rooms. In this way the air is kept pure, as all the oxygen is not burned out before it is used. FINIS. However glad the seniors may be to have completed the course and receive their honors, we cannot help regretting that it is not our lot to enjoy coming blessings. Editor. OUR SPEAKER FOR COMMENCEMENT. Edwin Holt Hughes, our speaker for commencement, is the new president of DePauw University. He was born in Virginia in 1866 and is thirty-seven years of age. His first co llege work was done at the Ohio Weslyan University, where during his senior year he took the Ohio State prize in oratory, and later the interstate, defeating with other contestants the DePauw orator. Graduating from the Ohio Weslyan, he entered the Boston School of Theology, from which institutions he now holds the degrees L. L. D. and Ph. D. In the New England Conference, for eight years, he filled the pastorate of the first Methodist Episcopal Church of Mal- den, Mass., the largest church in New England. He was serving in this capacity when chosen president of DePauw. Dr. Bashford, the popular president of Ohio Weslyan Uni- versity, closed his nomination speech for Dr. Hughes with these words, “Were I about to die, and my board of trus- tees should ask me to nominate my successor, I should nomi- nate Edwin H. Hughes. ’ ’ Drs. D. M. Wood of this city and C. E. Bacon of Indian- apolis were designated to go and see Dr. Hughes. The visit of these gentlemen resulted in his unanimous election to the presidency of DePauw. Dr. Hughes is rapidly becoming a favorite in Indiana, and his choice as president is meeting with universal approval.

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18 HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL 1904. The Prize Oration: TRUE PHILANTHROPY. Auretta Imagine, if you can, a narrow alley reeking with filth; men, women and even children pouring in and out of the gam- bling dens, saloons, thieve’s cellars and pawn shops on either side; and foul vapors rising from fish-stalls and fruit-stands that line the street. A crowd of ragged boys, on their way to spend their pitifully small wages at a low class theatre, rush past, filling the air with curses and blasphemies. Here, piled up into the smoky, choking air, is a mass of dirty, poverty- striken tenements, teeming with people whose daily lives are unwritten tragedies. The people exist, merely exist, in these places, not live in any sense of the word. We can, w ith difficulty, imagine the life of people in this condition, yet such is the picture we are given of London slum life in Charles Kingsley’s novel, “Alton Locke.” A picture of the most appalling sights is painted for us, of homes devastated, the fathers and sons slowly dying in dense atmosphere of sweat shops or wearing their lives away in a vain attempt to care for their wives and babies by daily piece work; of mothers and daughters starving to death. It is not in London alone, nor at this particular time that we find these districts of squalor and wretchedness, for in all ages and in all places men have striven to correct these deplorable con- ditions. “ Social Equality ” has long been the cry of the promoters of socialism. Away back on the Nile river, five thousand years ago, the ancient Pharaohs were declaring for equality. They built many structures for the betterment of their people and some tribes excluded criminals from their boundaries. Over in the land of art and beauty Plato encouraged indepen- Hoyt Agnew. dent thinkers and spent many years of his life in an attempt to introduce reforms into the courts of despots. He taught that vice is ignorance and virtue is knowledge and that if men can be made to see and recognize the good, they will do it. Justinian, the great Emperor of Rome and founder of Roman law, instituted reforms that were of great benefit to his people. He made wise laws and built churches, acqueducts, convents and bridges for them. In our own time the names of Robert Owen, Fournier and Saint Simon stand foremost as the advo- cates of social reform. They founded the first infant schools in England and France and introduced shorter hours into factory labor. But not until the time of Arnold Toynbee, in the latter part of the 19th century, had any one arrived at a reasonable conclusion for solving this great problem, but he knew that this democratic and unchristian condition of the poor labor- ing classes and criminal classes could be bettered not by giving alms, but by intimate association with them and by brotherly love. Appalled by the depth of wretchedness and sin in the slums of London, he turned the power of his wealth and the thirty years of his life against the force which was crushing the lives of thousands of men, women and children. This man, accustomed to every luxury, with naturally refined tastes and the best education that England’s universities could offer him, went down into the heart of this district and with a few faithful followers made a home there. The new project was begun and before his early death he saw his work bear fruit and yield a plenteous and rich harvest of good. From this beginning the movement has spread all over